Mom of a Missionary. Emails from Mexico, December 17, 2018.

I can't think of a clever title for this one

Hello, Family and Friends! My name is Elder Bowlboat. 

Surprise! Today we went out to Tampico and visited the Ex-Aduana Marítima in Tampico. It's a very old port building that used to recieve all the shipments and imports into Tampico. There was a guided tour and we got to see some sights. We took a little walk and saw some of the interesting view-points here in Tampico.

This is the Laguna de Carpintero. It's famous because somebody let their pet crocodile loose and now the lagoon is full of crocodiles! 

Hey... is  this a floating log I see? Better take a closer look...

This week we've been working hard to maintain control over our large area... it's the largest area I've ever had! We've got lots of space to work, and if we're not careful, we use poorly our time. Its good to get the work done when we can.

We had a Christmas activity this week in the ward. It went really well! There were a lot of people that arrived, there were piñatas smashed, and tamales eaten. Christmas is coming up. I'm not suuuuper ready for that, but we'll see how things go down.

This week, Elder Pingree from the quorum of the Seventies came and gave us a missionary training session. He told us that we need to have faith to seek and find little miracles in our service. He also told us that we need to be using Preach My Gospel every day to help us in our studies. The wife of our Mission President reminded us that "Our desires determine our destiny, because what our heart desires determines our priorities, and our priorities determine our decisions, and our decisions decide our future." That's good enough to be scripture!

Here's a scripture that Elder Pingree shared with us that I found to be really interesting.

3 Nephi 18:32  Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall healthem; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.  
As missionaries, we work with faith, but we cannot override the free-agency of others (doing so would be completely against God's Plan). So, how do we work with faith? We keep working, and keep ministering. Faith is the hope in things not seen, which are true. When we work towards helping someone come unto Christ, we work with the hope and faith that one day, they will use their free agency to come unto Christ, and he will heal them. We're just instruments in the hands of God, a means of bringing salvation to the people.

I'm going to send a few more pictures as attachments... Including (but not limited to): Us going out to eat breakfast, Boats, cool buildings, and Tampico.

Love you all! Miss you loads, and see you soon!

-Elder Bowlby